molan

When I started using a Gramma pad in my little music room the number of complaints from other members of the household dropped considerably. I didn't really notice much difference personally but it definitely seemed to help isolate the overall vibrations resonating around the rest of the house

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1399065322' post='2440750'] Once again because they could. What so many people seem to forget is that back in the 70s these were just mass-produced instruments and the Musicmaster was Fender's "budget" line for people who needed the Fender logo on their instrument but who couldn't afford a Precision or Jazz. They weren't any big deal and relatively cheap and therefore ripe for "customisation" and modification as it took the owner's fancy. [/quote] Relatively speaking they were surprisingly expensive. I bought mine in '79 for £120 - I was earning £200 a month and it took me quite a while to save up enough money to buy one and I treated it like it was a very precious thing indeed

Saw them at Oxford on Tuesday. Didn't miss Anderson at all but I wasn't overly impressed by Geoff Downes - he can play all the parts but having his back to the audience almost all night was a bit odd. Howe & Squire were, unsurprisingly the stars of the show. We were right in front of Steve Howe (who is looking a bit scary these days!) and it was amazing to see him that close. Really good show and the flow of material worked fine for me. Didn't bother me that it was a bit out of chronological sequence and the addition of Roundabout as an encore made up for the lack of Fragile as an album

[quote name='aldude' timestamp='1398935252' post='2439107'] So ..... I got a B1000, and used it in anger on Tuesday evening at rehearsal. And ... wow this thing is loud. I mean, this thing on it's minimum volume seems pretty loud so I would keep the "active" switch enabled or turn down the bass - I'm in a loud band anyway though so it doesn't matter to me! Sounds lovely though. I don't usually use tube overdrive because I don't really like it ... until now! It adds a growly grit to the sound that I quite like and is less harsh than other tube preamps I've tried. The amp also seems very, very transparent. That is, anything that I seem to play seems to come right through - I tend to play a bit percussively when I get excited and that definitely comes through. It's also quite high on the treble side so that needs to be toned back, I usually have to turn the treble up. All in all it seems like a pretty decent amp. We shall see how it fares at a gig this Saturday night! [/quote] If I remember correctly the 'treble' centre point on the B1000 is set quite high (as is the sub bass) so cutting this back a bit should just soften the top end a bit without compromising nicer elements of your tone. Cutting some some sub bass and high treble still leaves you with bass / low mid / mid / high mid to play with for more 'traditional' tome shaping too

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398893483' post='2438864'] There are some places I've emailed offering about £900 up for a 5 string P or J with hard case, standard spec. Pretty good! [/quote] One thing to watch out for Gareth is that if you order a Carvin that isn't sitting as a 'stock' bass in the Uk then it's exempt from the EU distance selling regs because it's classed as 'personalised' and/or a 'custom' product. This means you can only return it if it is faulty. Obviously part of the whole custom build process is to specify something you really want but if it turns up and you don't really like it it can't be returned like a standard UK stock item. This holds true for all custom builds - everything from a bespoke Sei or Shuker to a Fender or Sandberg Custom Shop. There may be some grey areas if it doesn't quite match what you thought you were getting IE the green you ordered isn't as dark as you wanted etc. but I wouldn't want to challenge these in court

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1398877101' post='2438592'] The thing about Carvin is that is you look at the prices in US dollars and they are very competitive... look at the prices over here and they cost a bomb. Pick something of their's and google the model name- the top hit tends to be the American page- look at google's cache of the page and you get to see the US prices. [/quote] A lot of the differential is just the usual deal of adding shipping and UK taxes and import duties that pushes UK prices. On a £600 bass you have to add about £125 shipping and then £185 duties and courier clearance fees. That brings UK equivalent up to £915. That's a 50% increase on the US price Of course this is the most basic spec price and the shipping fee and courier clearance is flat for all models so upgrading spec brings the UK pricing closer to US (although the 23% VAT and duties will always be there). Every Carvin is built to order and some options are great value compared to a lot of custom builders. My favourite is the Birdseye maple board which adds just £25 to the price of a regular maple one! Their build times are great too, approx 8 weeks from order to completed instrument. They are never late either Official list price on a PB5 starts at £972 in the UK which isn't bad for an all US made instrument. If you speak nicely to a dealer they will discount off that base price as well to bring it pretty close to the £915 figure

I've got a Diago Commuter that works well. I recently downsized to a really small board so don't need it any more. If you decide to go for a Diago then zap me a message and you can have first shout before I stick it up for sale

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398766508' post='2437308'] Cheers Molan. I will probably try a set of these on an incoming bass... [/quote] The answer was along the lines: 'We will be getting these in stock but we don't know when or how much they will cost. . .'

I've asked the La Bella boys for pricing and availability dates

I know a man who really, really, knows his strings - he's been making and selling them, mostly for La Bella, for something like 40 years. He reckons the only difference it's likely to make is that it make some strings die faster, or break, and that with flats it can actually make them sound completely lifeless and dead (which decent flats should not sound like!) because it enhances string twisting unless you are super careful winding on. Given his heritage of working with classic flats for such a long time I was genuinely surprised at how passionate he was about not stringing through the body. He said there was a modern trend amongst some lower end instrument makers to offer through body stringing to try make out some sort of heritage link but their bridges were really not up to the job and destroyed strings. La Bella do make a bespoke string for through-body stringing now but he still maintained it wouldn't sound remotely different but they had to make some to meet customer demand.

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1398544863' post='2435183'] It's riddled with errors but it means we'll This month's interview with Field. [/quote] Is this part of your audition piece to be a journalist for them Sorry, couldn't resist - we all get caught out by over-zealous spell checkers from time to time. . .

I think the best Nasser is probably Hussein

I swapped my Berg AE112's for SL112's and definitely preferred them. I found the Bergs a bit boomy on certain stages and if pushed into tight corners (which is where I often end up). Part of the attraction was the 20% weight saving too The SL's are still my personal favourites of all,the neo loaded 1x12 cabs. I really like the CN's as well but find they sound significantly nicer in pairs whereas, to my ears, the SL's sound good both singly and paired up. I'm actually currently using an AE210 for most gigs simply because it's a great 'form factor' for me. Mine is vertical aligned and it brings the 2nd speaker up to a nice height and puts out a lot of bottom end for such a shallow cab. The lack of cabinet depth means it's great in really tight spaces. Having said all of this my favourite single cab solution would be a CN212. I love these cabs but they are just a fraction too bulky for the kind of gigs I'm playing. I wish Aguilar would bring out an SL212, I think that could be a killer cab!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398521551' post='2434943'] I think we need a UK company to start building hand made, point to point amps, not just aimed at the big tube amps. It would be worth the premium. Totally OT there, sorry. [/quote] Spoke to someone recently about this - opening estimate was £30K of R&D costs to get something fully operational, patented and approved for operation across EU and into production with high quality components and chassis. . .

I agree with lots of the above, if I wanted a simple one cab solution that would cover any gig then the CN212 would be my first choice. I currently use an AE210 and I love the physical size of this cab. I'd love to hear a CN version of a 210!

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1398459476' post='2434464'] Been happily using the BX500 for over a year now and love it. You folks must play in some VERY loud bands if you need all that extra power! Service from Bass Gear is brilliant as well (although I've not bumped into Barrie in my 3 trips there so far)! [/quote] I don't actually exist - I am merely a virtual assistant. . .

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1398361186' post='2433426'] I've been trying a vibration process on the ageing Mrs Dingus lately, but she sounds just the same as ever. [/quote] Have you used a cylindrical metal pressure vessel, the internal temperature and humidity of which is controlled as the treatment process is carried out; the pressure is changed in stages. This enables the treatment process to be undertaken in a surprisingly short time. Of particular necessity during the treatment process is the precise control of temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure, as well as setting the optimal amount of treatment. The result of experience and expertise spanning many years are required to deliver the “sweet sound” you're looking for. More simply put - you're just not doing it right and need more practice. . .

It looks like the strap button is sitting somewhere around 15th fret? That's going to really throw the neck out to the left of the player. You generally see this on smaller bodied basses but this seems to have a 'regular' sized body. This would be a major turn-off for me as it would feel 'wrong' compared to my other instruments. Could effect balance as well

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1398346003' post='2433211'] I have a Carvin 1000W power amp (non-lightweight). It's got some intelligent features and build quality is very good. I have my doubts about support though: I sent them a straightforward query by email and it was ignored. [/quote] The pro-sound team are different from the instrument and guitar/bass amp team so I can't really say how good they are but he guitar and amp guys are great. They now have one guy who starts at something like 6AM US West Coast time so that he's available in hours that are closer to a UK working day. For general queries they would refer to a dealer to respond but, as I'm sure everyone here knows, not all dealers are that great at following up on stuff. Bass specific queries tend to get sent to BassGear (where I work part-time) because we are the only bass dedicated dealer in the country. We have supplied guitars, guitar kits and some spare parts for older amps and power amps in the past and stuff always arrives super quick. In answer to Gareth's question - they don't have a dedicated repair team in the UK. We've only ever had one warranty claim and they just sent us a replacement part and our local repair man fitted it. They used to have a UK warehouse but this has been closed down now so everything comes direct from the US.

The B1000 is very new (first ones in the Uk arrived a few weeks ago) and there aren't many reviews out there yet. At the risk of plagiarism here's what our esteemed friend above said about his B2000: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/204685-new-amp-day-carvin-b2000/ Basically the B1000 is the same but less powerful It's warmer and fuller sounding than the BX range which is a bit more 'modern' sounding. Both ranges have a little valve in the pre but they're really there to add warmth rather than to be over-driven. They're all really light weight - B2000 is 14lbs, B1000 is 6.5lbs, BX1600 is 8.5lbs and the baby BX700 is 6lbs. I could say more but, as we're the main Carvin bass retailer, I shouldn't really sing their praises too much for fear of appearing overly biased